Birthdays, dinosaurs, and other subjects banned from NYC school tests

Birthdays? Dinosaurs? New York City education officials have an arguably overzealous blacklist of subjects that test-writers should avoid

It is apparently quite common for school districts to request that standardized tests not include certain words that students might find offensive. But New York City’s list of some 50 banned test topics is twice as long as national sensitivity lists. NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott tells CBS that the city Department of Education is “not an outlier in being politically correct” — it’s just dealing with a more diverse student body. But most experts — not to mention students, educators, and parents — seem to be on the PC-run-amok side. Here, a look at 11 of the blacklisted topics, and why they might have been deemed problematic: